Wands, woods, cores and characters

The new Pottermore information gives us the possibility to delve deeper in the world of wandwood, cores and lenghts. Be aware this is in-depth wand analysis about the compatibility of the characters and their wands.

1. Ollivander tells us that every wand is different. How well do you think the wands (think about descriptions of various woods, cores and lenghts/flexibility) match with their owner?

2. Ron's first wand was made of Ash, his second of Willow. How does this change in wandwood correspond with the development of Ron's character throughout the series?

3. Draco Malfoy's hawthorn wand is described as adept at curses but also at home with "a conflicted nature, or with a witch or wizard passing through a period of turmoil". What does this description tell us about Draco's development in the last couple of books?

4. Harry won the hawthorn wand from Draco. The unicorn core tells us that wands with such a core are generally the most faithful and strongly attached to their first owner. Why did the wand change his alliance so easily?

Below under the expanded tags you find the the characters and their wand information.

James Potter had a Mahogany wand, and we know it was purchased at Ollivander's.

Do you think this is an oversight and she wasn't thinking about him at all, or do you think she chose to "retire" the wood, out of respect for James' untimely demise?

I was wondering about that. There are some woods on there I'd never even heard of but mahogany, a famous type of wood, wasn't listed? It doesn't strike me as an oversight because I can't imagine she'd just forget about mahogany. I'm thinking that, since it's an expensive type of wood, perhaps it's not very commonly used.

I doubt it had anything to do with James' death because Lily's wand wood is listed.

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2. Ron's first wand was made of Ash, his second of Willow. How does this change in wandwood correspond with the development of Ron's character throughout the series?

Well, I never really thought his first ash wand had any bearing upon his character since it wasn't the wand that "chose" him. The willow wand suited him much better, IMO, since it is said to choose those with a lot of insecurities and Ron's got quite a bunch of those.

Interestingly, the only other character who was known to have a willow wand was Lily. What could her insecurity have been? Maybe she thought that, as a Muggleborn, she wasn't good enough for the WW?

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4. Harry won the hawthorn wand from Draco. The unicorn core tells us that wands with such a core are generally the most faithful and strongly attached to their first owner. Why did the wand change his alliance so easily?

That's true but the unicorn core is also described as the one least likely to be attracted to Dark Magic. Maybe the fact that Draco had "forced" Dark Magic out of his wand weakened its "loyalty" to him, thus allowing Harry to quickly gain its allegiance.

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Originally Posted by Merrylore

James Potter had a Mahogany wand, and we know it was purchased at Ollivander's.

Do you think this is an oversight and she wasn't thinking about him at all, or do you think she chose to "retire" the wood, out of respect for James' untimely demise?

That was the first and only flaw I reported about Pottermore. James is one of my favorite characters so I was really disappointed his wand wood description wasn't given. I don't think it has anything to do with respect for James since Lily's wand wood is given. This doesn't make much sense, but I keep getting the feeling that JKR likes to keep James as much of a mystery as possible. In the books, he remains much more of a mystery than Lily, and JKR also said in an interview something about how she knows more about James than she reveals in the books, and now his wand wood is missing from Pottermore. And it's not like mahogany is an obscure wood or anything so I don't see how she could have overlooked it. Meh, well, let's keep our fingers crossed that she'll decide to add it in some day.

"Its hooves made no mark on the soft ground as it stared at Harry with its large, silver eyes. Slowly, it bowed its antlered head. And Harry realized..."Prongs..."
- Hermione's Secret, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I was wondering about that. There are some woods on there I'd never even heard of but mahogany, a famous type of wood, wasn't listed? It doesn't strike me as an oversight because I can't imagine she'd just forget about mahogany. I'm thinking that, since it's an expensive type of wood, perhaps it's not very commonly used.

I doubt it had anything to do with James' death because Lily's wand wood is listed.

(My underlining)

This is an interesting point; maybe James's wand was personally crafted for him sort of as Luna's replacement wand in DH is personally crafted for her and that might explain the use of an uncommon or unlisted wand wood. James's family was very wealthy and as far as I recall from my blasting through Pottermore today it's never stated that Ollivander didn't take private commissions for wands, it's said that he began sort of standardizing wand cores, refusing to use substandard materials such as kneazle hair. It seems to remain a possibility that James's wand might have been commissioned by his parents, like an extra special gift to celebrate his going off to Hogwarts since he was an extra special treasure to his parents.

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This is an interesting point; maybe James's wand was personally crafted for him sort of as Luna's replacement wand in DH is personally crafted for her and that might explain the use of an uncommon or unlisted wand wood. James's family was very wealthy and as far as I recall from my blasting through Pottermore today it's never stated that Ollivander didn't take private commissions for wands, it's said that he began sort of standardizing wand cores, refusing to use substandard materials such as kneazle hair. It seems to remain a possibility that James's wand might have been commissioned by his parents, like an extra special gift to celebrate his going off to Hogwarts since he was an extra special treasure to his parents.

SS, Diagon Alley

“Ah yes,” said the man. “Yes, yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon. Harry Potter.” It wasn’t a question. “You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.”

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

“Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it — it’s really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course.”

Ollivander may experiment with different cores, but in the end, the wand has to choose you - you don't choose the wand, if you truly wand it to be your's, for the most part.

I think eventually JKR will give us her little "fast facts" square about James and list his wand there, but I think leaving the wand out was more or less an oversight on her part when creating Pottermore. I don't think she was thinking about James at all. Of course, I could turn out to be completely wrong, but from the book I don't get the impression that Mahogany was "limited edition."

I like the part where Ollivander mentions Mahogany is good for "transfiguration" - a foreshadowing of when Harry learns about James being an animagus. Seems like the wand wood is a good fit for him.

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When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter.
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Ollivander may experiment with different cores, but in the end, the wand has to choose you - you don't choose the wand, if you truly wand it to be your's, for the most part.

Which brings up the question of whether a wand specifically made for a person (as Luna's replacement wand is made for her) would choose that person as its owner at all or whether, even though it was specifically made for that person, it would reject them. Maybe not an appropriate discussion topic for this thread.

(BTW, love the slip of the tongue in there: "if you truly wand it to be yours" )

What I find particularly interesting about the Pottermore information is how limited Ollivander's wandcores are - he only used three materials? Okay, while Kneazle hair might not have great magical properties for use in wands I think it's hard to believe that only three materials (phoenix feather, unicorn hair and dragon heartstring) were suitable for quality wands. Veela hair might not have been the most even-keel of materials but it certainly seemed to work just fine. This begs the question of what requirements a material must meet in order for Ollivander to deem it "suitable."

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"I could have been in politics 'cause I've always been a big spender."

I think that the new wand for Ron nicely coincides with him becoming a more important character. In the second book Hermione is petrified by the basilisks stare and this event thrusts Ron into more of an important role. He shows great courage throughout this book standing up to Malfoy and going to rescue Ginny from the Chamber with Harry. Just as his wand fits better with Ron, Ron fits better within the framework of the story, as opposed to being second fiddle to Harry and Hermione, the more magically gifted characters.

Concerning the wands of the trio, aren't the woods used the ones that correspond with their birthday?
There is that celtic horoscope where some kind of tree belongs to your birthday/month of birth (and, as in "normal" star signs, can give information about your character)...and I think I read somewhere that JKR said she wanted to match the wand woods of the trio with their 'horoscope-tree'.

I had to think about Harry's first encounter with Draco -
Draco says his father is looking for books while his mother is looking for wands, and that he wants to get them to get him a broomstick after that (unfortunately I can't give you the quote, since I only have it in German (the chapter could be titled something like "in Diagon Alley" in English, if you want to look it up for yourself)).
That sounds as if Draco isn't really involved in getting his own wand - maybe Narcissa makes some kind of preliminary selection from which Draco is supposed to chose? But I could imagine that she actually buys the wand she thinks suits Draco best.

I really like Lucius' wand, btw, I think it's just the perfect fit - especially the wood description.

McGonagall's wand seems to be pretty short, according to your information o_Ô
But I have problem's with the lengths either way, sometimes they just seem to make perfect sense, and then I have no idea why this specific wand e.g. is supposed to be that short.

I think Harry's wand suits him perfectly. As we all know, Harry tends to struggle with overcoming his anger. He also has a holly wand paired with phoenix feather which he develops over time into a powerful wand. Phoenix feather requires time to show potential, and it makes sense that over the course of the series Harry becomes more skilled.

I thought the vine wand for Hermione was interesting because it suggests a very deep personality and higher purpose. We know that Hermione will go on to be involved in the Ministry of Magic legal department and that she cares about equality for other magical species. I think Hermione's wand reflects her future as a humanitarian.

I thought Draco's was quite interesting. Hawthorn reveals a more conflicted personality than perhaps we saw in the books, though I think Draco's ultimate position is as the cowardly foil to Harry's bravery. His wand is also unicorn hair which was a big surprise to me. Perhaps the unicorn hair core was one reason he had trouble following Voldemort's orders. "Reasonably springy" is an odd description for his level of flexibility, considering he seems to be so insistent on his anti-muggle ways.

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Pottermore: CoS:
True Hufflepuff at heart
Cherry, Unicorn Hair, 10 3/4 in., slightly yielding

[Draco's]wand is also unicorn hair which was a big surprise to me. Perhaps the unicorn hair core was one reason he had trouble following Voldemort's orders. "Reasonably springy" is an odd description for his level of flexibility, considering he seems to be so insistent on his anti-muggle ways.

I like the fact his wand is unicorn hair; perhaps this is supposed to show us that Draco isn't necessarily an evil, but rather a mislead person. I don't think he would really have been able to seriously harm or even kill anyone, probably the methods of the Death Eaters were just to extreme for him.
Considering the flexibility, although he seems to be quite stubborn when it comes to his views, I think he is a person who can at least pretend to change his opinions when it would be beneficial to do so.

Rowan wood has always been much-favoured for wands, because it is reputed to be more protective than any other, and in my experience renders all manner of defensive charms especially strong and difficult to break. It is commonly stated that no Dark witch or wizard ever owned a rowan wand, and I cannot recall a single instance where one of my own rowan wands has gone on to do evil in the world. Rowan is most happily placed with the clear-headed and the pure-hearted, but this reputation for virtue ought not to fool anyone - these wands are the equal of any, often the better, and frequently out-perform others in duels.

The quality of protectiveness is obvious (founding the Order, to protect innocent lives) and defensive charms that are extremely difficult to break remind me of the powerful protective charm he placed on Privet Drive to keep Harry safe. Dumbledore did meddle with some pretty dark ideas in his youth, but I don't think anyone would consider him a Dark Wizard, and the last lines are probably the most telling, since JK definitely had us fooled with his reputation for virtue, up until DH, when we finally learned about his checkered past, and his involvement and ultimate duel with Grindelwald.

I know it's been discussed on other threads before - wondering what kind of wand he was using when he beat Grindelwald - and it seems like Rowan would be a really good match (and I would guess core of Unicorn hair).